Introduction
This is a Situation Update report from Kaw T’Ree Township, Dooplaya District, covering events between April 1st and June 30th 2025. This situation update is about human rights violations. In this area, I [a KHRG researcher] witnessed that villagers faced unstable [access to] education, transportation, livelihoods, and living standards due to conflict in the country.
Fighting and SAC air strikes and shelling in Kaw T’Ree Township
In 2021, the State Administration Counsil (SAC)[2] seized power and established a dictatorship. Following that, armed conflict occurred all over the country. Now, it is 2025, yet conflict is ongoing in Kaw T’Ree Township, Dooplaya District, in Karen National Union (KNU)[3]-controlled areas, in Southeast Burma. The conflict happened between the SAC and combined armed resistance groups, including the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA)[4], the Karen National Defence Organisation (KNDO)[5], and People’s Defense Force (PDF)[6], all of which [cooperate] under the KNU’s system.
Fighting escalated during April 1st until June 30th 2025 in Kaw T’Ree Township as armed resistance groups attacked and captured an SAC army camp located in Thay Baw Boh area [on June 3rd 2025], causing difficulties for villagers. [During the fighting,] the SAC conducted shelling and used aircraft to drop bombs into villages, where there was no conflict.
On April 15th 2025, shelling happened at Aa--- village, Noh Poe village tract[7], Kaw T’Ree Township, injuring two villagers.[8] 41-year-old Naw[9] A--- was injured on her abdomen, and local village leaders sent her to Ac--- clinic, run by the KNLA/PDF. Later, she was referred to Ab--- clinic [located in Thailand] to receive further treatment. In addition, a 21-year-old named Saw[10] B--- also sustained injuries on his right leg. He received treatment at Ac--- clinic, run by the KNLA/PDF as well. Moreover, two houses were damaged.
[The SAC shelled and carried out air strikes on villages in Thay Baw Boh village tract after combined resistance forces attacked their An--- army camp in late May 2025.] Shelling and air strikes happened on May 25th 2025 at Ad--- village, Thay Baw Boh village tract, Kaw T’Ree Township. At first, an SAC fighter jet dropped approximately five bombs into Ad--- village, however, there were no casualties. [Later] on the same day, SAC soldiers fired [an unknown number of] mortar shells into Ad--- village and injured two siblings named Saw C--- and Naw D---. Villagers believed that the mortars were fired from SAC’s Ghaw Lay army camp, the only army camp located nearby.
Then, on May 28th 2025, an air strike happened in Ae--- village, Thay Baw Boh village tract, killing a 70-year-old woman named Daw[11] E---. When the air strike happened, she was feeding her pigs. She was advised [by local KNU leaders] to displace elsewhere prior to the incident. However, she did not displace in advance because she had to take care of her husband, who was paralysed. Due to the air strike, villagers’ belongings and more than five houses were damaged.
After that, on May 29th, air strikes happened in Ad--- village and Af--- village, Thay Baw Boh village tract. On May 29th 2025, between 6:45 pm and 7 pm, an SAC fighter jet came and dropped multiple bombs, including at least two 250-pound bombs, despite there being no fighting in the village.[12] Bombs landed inside a school’s compound in Ad--- village, and one remained unexploded. In addition, one bomb landed in front of a girls’ dormitory, located inside the compound of Af--- school (run by the Karen Education and Culture Department (KECD)[13]). One of the 250-pound bombs landed inside a monastery’s compound, and another 250-pound bomb landed near a shop house in Af--- village.
Three students from Af--- school and a villager from Af--- village sustained injuries. The four casualties include a 14-year-old boy named Saw F---, a 15-year-old named Saw G---, a 16-year-old named Saw H---, and a 28-year-old named Saw I---. Soldiers from the combined forces of the KNLA and PDF sent the four casualties to Ag--- clinic, run by the KNLA. One of the villagers sustained severe injuries. Thus, they were referred to Ah--- hospital [which is located in Thailand]. There were no casualties in Ad--- village as a result of the air strikes.
Villagers from Af--- village and Ad--- village dared not to live in their village following the air strike incident. Villagers fled to the forest and to farm huts.
Displacement in Kaw T’Ree Township
The researcher visited areas where air strikes had taken place in Ad--- village and Af--- village, Thay Baw Boh village tract. However, he did not find any villagers remaining in Ad--- village, and he encountered with very few villagers in Af--- village. When the researcher went to Af--- village to document human rights issues, the researcher discovered that villagers did not dare to live in their villages. They were scared that the SAC’s aircraft would drop bombs and conduct shelling indiscriminately into their villages. These villages experienced either air strikes or shelling during 2022 and 2025. They witnessed damage, destruction, and injuries [from shelling and air strikes in their villages].
Villagers from nine village tracts were afraid to live in their villages. [In addition to the villages abovementioned,] displaced villages are :
Villagers fled to places where they felt safer and free from danger. Some fled to displacement areas, to Bq--- [a forest area], and to Bx--- river area. Displacement areas in Taw Naw Muh Htaw [the area to the east of the Taw Naw mountain range] include [five] displacement sites: site #1 (Cb---), displacement site #3 (An---), displacement site #4 (Cc---), and displacement site #5 (Cd--- [and] Ce---).
Travelling and transportation challenges in the township:
Due to the ongoing conflict in the country, there were difficulties to travel [due to fighting] on a road [which runs from Ghaw Lay Myaing to Ra Ma Tee/Myawaddy towns] in Taw Naw Mu Htaw area, Dooplaya District.
Between late April and June 2025, there were not many passengers travelling on the road because the fighting happened very close to the road. Villagers were informed [in April 2025] by local authorities that KNLA soldiers planned to clear out Bler Doh [SAC army camp], Thay Baw Boh [SAC army camp], and Ao Kray Hta [army camp]. Thus, villagers felt scared and displaced themselves in advance.
From 2023 until now [June 2025], the Asian Highway[14] has been restricted for travel [due to ongoing fighting]. [Instead,] villagers used mountain paths for travelling because they had no alternative roads left to use. Villagers from Ghoh Ther Si village tract, Maw Ma village tract, Aoo Hpa village tract, and Kya K’Wa village tract travel to sell things only through Ra Ma Tee [Myawaddy] road, because Kaw T’Ree’s road and Kruh Tuh’s road were completely closed. From April to June, we [villagers] know that the road got harder [more difficult to travel on].
Livelihood challenges in Kaw T’Ree Township:
Between April and June 2025, [due to the ongoing conflict] villagers from Kaw T’Ree Township did not dare to go and work in their plantation fields, farmlands, and hill farms anymore. On June 3rd 2025, an SAC army camp in Thay Baw Boh was captured by KNDO Battalion #8, KNLA Battalion #27 and #28, and PDF collaborating (including the Veno column, Cobra column[15], Black Panther column, and Federal Wings [an armed resistance group that builds improvisational drones]).
Thus, villagers in Thay Baw Boh village tract and village tracts near Thay Baw Boh, such as Maw Hkee village tract, Kaw Nweh village tract, Maw Ma village tract, Ghoh Ther Si village tract, Aww Hpa village tract, and Noh Poe village tracts, did not dare to go and work in their plantation fields, farmlands, and hill farms. Many fields became overgrown. Some villagers left their plantations unharvested. In Kaw T’Ree Township, villagers often harvested durian, betel nuts, betel nut leaves, pineapple, and mangosteen during April, May, and June. However, in 2025, due to the constant fighting, villagers were unable to harvest plantations with these plants.
Education challenges in Kaw T’Ree Township
During the last week of May 2025, combined armed resistance groups, including the KNLA, KNDO, and the PDF, began attacking the SAC’s Thay Baw Boh army camp in the Taw Naw Mu Htaw area, Kaw T’Ree Township, escalating the ongoing conflict. While the attack was ongoing, the SAC used aircraft and dropped bombs into Af--- village, Thay Baw Boh village tract. [As discussed above,] the bomb explosions injured three students and a villager, raising villagers’ concerns regarding students going to school.
Following the attack, villagers feared reopening schools. Schools did not open and close on time [following a regular schedule] in Maw Hkee village tract, Thay Baw Boh village tract, Pa Lu village tract, and Chu K’Lee village tract, due to the ongoing conflict.
[In Burma,] schools typically reopen in June. However, in 2025, the KHRG researcher witnessed that due to the conflict, schools were still closed in June. Some schools such as [KECD] middle schools in Au--- village and Aa--- village, [and another school in As--- village], Noh Poe village tract; a [KECD] middle school from Ca--- village, P’Lu village tract; and a [KECD] primary school from Ai--- village, Ao Kray Hta village tract, were damaged/destroyed by the air strikes, and shelling from previous years. Thus, students could not study in the school. In some schools, unexploded UXOs remained, preventing students from studying in the school compound. Therefore, students studied in villagers’ houses.
Parents worried for [the further education of] their children. As of June 2025, the intensification of conflict had continued, as not all SAC soldiers from Thay Baw Boh army camp had been captured by resistance armed forces, so students and children continued to study away from schools. This became an obstacle for students to access education. Similarly, it increased the difficulties villagers faced in their livelihoods. In the education sector, the KECD education system’s printed textbooks were also not sufficient for all the schools.
We don’t know when the conflict in Karen State will end. As long as fighting exists, the conflict will [be forced to] coexist with the Karen community.
Further background reading on the situation on air strikes in Dooplaya District in Southeast Burma/Myanmar can be found in the following KHRG reports: